The Los Angeles County Regional Water Quality Control Board unanimously approved the water discharge and recycling requirements for the Vista Canyon Water Factory recently.

Currently under construction, the Vista Canyon Ranch project is a 185-acre development near Lost Canyon and Sand Canyon roads that will bring approximately 1,100 residential units and up to 950,000 square feet of commercial, medical and retail space to Canyon Country.

An application to the regional board in March 2014 sought approval for the discharge of “tertiary-treated wastewater from the water factory for non-potable recycled water applications.”

To be owned by the city of Santa Clarita, the “water factory” would treat wastewater from the residential and commercial development. The treated water would then irrigate on-site landscaping and be used for other non-potable purposes.

The process involves preliminary treatment, flow equalization, secondary treatment, clarification, tertiary treatment and disinfection (UV and chlorination with sodium hypochlorite), according to a board report. The factory would handle up to 392,000 gallons per day.

Sludge from the process, about 21,000 gallons per day, and other excess treated effluent not being recycled would be discharged to the two downstream facilities of the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District – the reclamation plants in Saugus and Valencia.

The regional board received written comments from U.S. Rep. Steve Knight, R-Palmdale; Assemblyman Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita; the Santa Clarita Water District, Castaic Lake Water Agency, Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corp., the city of Santa Clarita, Vista Canyon Ranch LLC, and the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club was the only agency to file negative comments. It was concerned about the equity of distributing the recycled water the eastern end of the basin; the capability of the Saugus and Valencia treatment plants to handle the sludge and untreated wastewater; and contingencies to prevent wastewater from entering the Santa Clarita River. It said the plant would be built “dangerously close to the floodway of the Santa Clara River.”

The regional board said it lacked the authority to determine which agency would retain the recycled water. It said the Saugus and Valencia treatment plants have a capacity of 6.1 and 21.1 million gallons per day, respectively, and that they currently average 5.1 and 13.9 million gallons per day, respectively.

Thus the regional board determined the two plants would have “sufficient capacity to accommodate the sludge and untreated wastewater from the Vista Canyon Water Factory.”

The regional board addressed the concerns about wastewater entering the Santa Clara River, whether by accident or disaster. It said discharging raw sewage or treated wastewater into the surface water is prohibited, and that the city of Santa Clarita would be required to build a “retaining wall in conformance with the County of Los Angeles Capital-Flood requirement, which exceed(s) a 1,00-year storm event,” according to the report. The city must also submit an assessment of “climate change effects vulnerability,” it said.

To read the comments or for more information, click [here].